Snow and the Wishing Well (Fallen Tales series)

Chapter 35

Chapter 35
Sarah
When I got to the hotel room after an unsuccessful day of looking for Billy, I found it empty.
Had Justin gone to see Abbigail? Had he really taken my advice? I smiled at the thought that I had helped him make one of the biggest decision of his life.
I frowned when I spotted a note on my side of the bed. Immediately recognising Justin's handwriting, I read it.

Meet at Addendum Restaurant someone I would like you to meet.

My heart leaped in my chest and the thought of him wanting me to meet his mother.
Is this what normal girls feel like? Excited, happy, nervous, all at the same time. I hadn't felt this way in years. I couldn't get excited about anything and every time I felt happy I was reminded of all the people back at Willow Tree Abby. And then all the happiness was taken away.
When I walked into Addendum, I was overwhelmed of what I saw. Rows of tables and chairs were spread out across the room as people sat and ate their dinner. There was a wall of windows that looked out onto the London streets and showed the beautiful night sky.
I jumped, surprised when I heard Justin call out, "Sarah!"
I turned towards the sound of his voice and spotted both him and a woman with curly brown hair, sitting across from him.
I smiled nervously at him as I walked over to him. The woman had to turn half her body around to see me, but when she did my eyes seemed to widen. He looked just like her. They shared the same deep brown eyes, floppy brown hair, crooked cheeky smile. I was too speechless to speak.
"Abbigail, this is Sarah. Sarah, this is Abbigail, my birth mother," Justin introduced.
"Nice to meet you Sarah, Justin can barely talk of nothing else," Abbigail said with a proud smile. The same one that Justin wore.
I giggled awkwardly as Justin pulled out a seat for me. I hadn't been treated like this in, well, never.
"Don't believe a word that Justin says," I said, as nerves filled my voice.
"You don't need to worry, all good things."
I turned and smiled at Justin, as he turned his head in embarrassment.
"So how did you two meet?" she asked.
We both shared nervous looks.
"Well –," I started.
"She stole the key to my hotel room."
I slapped him, "excuse me, I was there before you."
"And she decides to use my shower."
I coughed, "the hotel room's shower."
"Before I even could react, she walks out of the bathroom as if she owned the place."
"Yeah, well, lucky for you, I was wearing a towel."
Abbigail giggled, clearly loving the story.
"So, how did you get a key?" she asked.
Both, Justin and I froze.
I didn't think his mother would like the idea of how I got that key. I slept with a man for money and on the way out, I took the key.
"Oh, she –."
"I think the person at the desk gave me the wrong key," I butted in, "when Justin booked in, our times over lapped meaning that –."
"Meaning that we both had keys to the same room," Justin finished, catching on.
"Well, that seems like fait" she stated taking a sip of her scotch.
We both giggled awkwardly as we thought.
If I hadn't had taken that key.
If Justin hadn't come to London.
If his parents hadn't sent him here in search of his birth mother.
If I hadn't come to London at all.
Would we have still met?


Justin
The three of us walked the London streets. The streetlights glowed like the stars in the night as we walked along. Cars and taxies drove past us, not even bothering to stop.
When we got to the hotel, we stopped.
"My apartment's not far from here," Abbigail stated pointing further down the street.
"I can walk you, if you like," I suggested, without even thinking.
She nodded accepting, then turned to Sarah.
"It was lovely to meet you Sarah," she told her.
"You too."
To me, Sarah said, "I'll, meet you inside."
I nodded, and watched her walk inside the bright hotel lobby.
Abbigail and I continued down the paved path. We were quiet for a while, as we thought about what to say. It was her who broke the silence.
"She seems really nice. You work well together."
I felt a sense of pride as I thought about Sarah. Not many people could lie about their life as quickly as she could and not many people could do it well. But she did, without trouble.
I decided I would ask the question we had been avoiding all night.
"So, what have you been doing for the past twenty years?" I asked.
She opened her mouth to speak but closed it.
"Come on, we've been avoiding the question."
She sighed giving in, "Well, when I left Locksley Manner, I came to London. Worked a few jobs, moved around a little," she paused deciding what to say next, "I met someone. And we had a kid together."
She stopped to see how I would react. I didn't know how to react. She couldn't be a mother to me, but she could be a mother to another person. But does that mean that she couldn't be happy.
"I'm happy for you," I told her.
Her nervous smile turned to a bright one. We continued to walk.
When we got to her apartment, she stopped and turned to me. I knew what she was going to say, long before she said it.
"See the thing is, Justin. I'm your mother –."
"But you're not my Ma, I know."
She sighed cupping her hand over my cheek.
"Gina and Aaron raised you well. Better than I could have done."
I smiled taking her hand. Ten years ago, I would have killed to meet her. Now that I had, I didn't feel the same. My parents wanted me to meet her, so that I would know who I was. But I didn't realize that it wasn't her that I needed to find. It was Sarah.
"It was nice meeting you, Abbigail Hornbrook," I told her.
She giggled shaking her head, "It was nice to meet you, Justin Carter."
I sighed at how right that sounded, how right it felt. Justin Carter.